is it really FOSS?

Tuta Mail

A privacy-focused email service

Nope!
It's not FOSS, and it doesn't currently claim to be, although it may have been in the past.

Details

The service provided is not open source, or source available, but just the email clients provided are provided under a GPLv3 license, not the service itself.

Tuta has a history of marketing themselves as an “open source email service”. Even on their homepage, they used to state:

[…] making Tuta the best open source email service all-around.

They have stated they’re aiming to open source their server side elements also, but this does not appear to have been achieved 6 years after mentioned there.

Tuta appears to be funded from grants and from selling its mail & calendar services.

Details last reviewed 2025-06-10. Our reviews are performed manually, without legal expertise, and therefore may be inaccurate or missing detail relevant for your use. Please don't treat this as legal guidance or assurance of any kind.

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